Charles Allen Barnes, pictured left with a ferret in a Facebook photo and right in a mug shot.
A 47-year-old Maine man has been federally indicted after allegedly recording a racist message that said “I’m killing me a n—” in August 2022.
Charles Allen Barnes of Lewiston was indicted last Thursday for using an “internet-based multimedia message service” to send the voicemail to D.F., who was identified as an acquaintance of the defendant’s and a close friend of K.T., a Black woman who was Barnes’ neighbor.
According to the indictment, Barnes used the messaging service to send D.F. the recording that forms the basis of the threat to injure charge.
“I’ve been parked outside [K.T.’s] apartment since early this f—ing morning, sis. Waiting for someone to step outside, and the first who who does is gonna die. Just like that. I don’t care if it’s her kid, or her, or her boyfriend. I don’t care, I don’t care. I’m killing me a n—.”
The indictment further alleged that Barnes “intentionally selected K.T. as the object of the offense […] because of the actual and perceived race and color of K.T. and her son.”
18 U.S. Code § 875 criminalizes the transmission “in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another.”
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Barnes, a husband and father, addressed the charges in a Facebook post about the case, claiming that his life “has been hell” recently.
“Ever since the story put out by Maine’s Attorney General [sic], came out about me, my life has been hell. Between consistent tampering with my car, harassment from a few customers, eviction, death threats … ect,” he wrote Monday. “Why don’t you call the police? Because someone can literally cut my brake lines and the cops won’t even write a basic report, they will just instantly accuse me of doing it myself to scam my, LIABILITY ONLY insurance that won’t cover it. Charged and Convicted are two separate things but no one cares.”
The DOJ noted that Barnes faces up to five years in prison if convicted as charged. As in any case, he is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
In another post Tuesday, Barnes shared a link to the Eminem song “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna and wrote: “All I will ever be, is a monster, pretending to be a man.”
Read the 2-page indictment here.
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